The Vanishing Sun: Eclipse Tales from Around the World http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explore/eclipse/Get excited about the 2017 Solar Eclipse with a new set of online storytelling recordings from the Lunar and Planetary Institute. These multicultural eclipse folktales were researched and performed by professional storytellers Cassandra Wye and Fran Stallings. The stories may be used in all settings and were recorded to engage a diverse audience and a variety of ages.Indiana Department of Education Eclipse Materialshttp://www.doe.in.gov/eclipse

If you scroll down through my thread, you'll come across a "Step One" comment on how to watch it... again, pretty much I say "follow Phil's advice", but I do lay out the idea of using a mirror to reflect the sunlight horizontally through a window the you "black out", and put a pinhole in. The result is a room (a dark room) you can walk into and see the pinhole-view projected Sun on the wall, and watch (or better yet sketch, which is likely what I'll do) the stages of the eclipse. The outside mirror (it can be any size) needs to be occasionally repositioned, but since the image is made by the pinhole, not the mirror, the image remains stationary even while the mirror might be adjusted. It's a fairly easy thing to set up, could be set up in one room of a school with the proper exposure and multiple classes could come in to view it over the course of the eclipse. And, it's very safe.

Now, if only there were some sunspots to make it more interesting...

Here's my text description of the idea... although I'd strongly suggest testing and setting it up a day or two in advance so you know good placements for the mirror and room, etc.

===== cut here with a sharp knife =====To find a whole range of tips on ways to safely view the eclipse, look at the "Part 2" link i previously posted. Here it is again:

Seriously, it's good, and covers all the basics. I would say, however, that there are two methods (Becky Jackson Fogle, you can do these for your party) that are somewhat sort-changed: binocular projection is safe, and excellent, and you probably have everything required around the house. The *other* that is only hinted at is "mirror projection", where you use a mirror as an effective pinhole viewer... but you can do better. You'll need a bigger mirror, and to cover over one of your windows, to make a really good "dark room", but it works great.

1) Identify a room in your house that you can seal against light (cardboard and duct tape over the outside of the windows works well... the darker you can make it, the better), and that you can reflect sunlight horizontally onto such a blacked-out window.

2) Leave a small hole, maybe a few inches across, in the carboard window shield; cover this hole with aluminum foil so it is again light-tight.

3) Poke a hole with a pin in the foil; if possible, make the hole round, and small.

4) Good so far? OK... now go take your bathroom mirror off the wall. Generally that involves removing a few screws to remove the brackets. It's not hard, but it will be heavy, and obviously you need to be careful (and, yeah, smaller mirrors will work, see below). You want to take the mirror outside and prop it against something sturdy (picnic table? Tree? Fence post?) so that the sunlight is reflected Off The Mirror Directly Onto The Fail "Pinhole", and then Through the pinhole onto the far wall of the darkened room.

Does that make sense? The idea here is to make a pinhole viewer out of your entire Livingroom... and because you can't reorient your Livingroom, you use a large external mirror to reflect the Sun's image onto the pinhole and through into the room. This works pretty well - you can make for a very dark viewing area, and the image of the Sun on the far wall can be easily traced by taping a piece of butcher paper or similar along the track the Sun's image will follow. Eventually, the mirror in the yard will not reflect light onto the pinhole anymore (the Sun is moving across the local sky), so now and then you must go out and reposition the mirror... which is why a bigger mirror works better. It doesn't make it any brighter here, but gives you more time between adjustments.

I haven't seen this method referenced anywhere (using a small mirror as an effective pinhole works really well, especially on the sides of buildings, but it's harder to see because it's not very dark on the "screen"). I used this to view a annular solar eclipse in Ann Arbor on the 10 May 1994, and it worked great (remember Dale Litzenberg? And you thought I was crazy for covering our entire sliding glass door with cardboard?)​-- Brian Davis(who will be testing this stuff in advance... and hoping for cloud-free skies)